Living repository of knowledge in Humanitarian Action

The Humanitarian Encyclopedia is a collaborative project with humanitarian and academic partners, combining theory and practice to support the growing ranks of humanitarian stakeholders in their strategic thinking, design and implementation of humanitarian responses.

It responds to the documented need to interrogate how terms and concepts used in humanitarian action are understood and applied across time, cultures, and organizations. It becomes a living repository of knowledge in Humanitarian Action offering the humanitarian community a clear and comprehensive reference framework and the opportunity to share and co-create knowledge.
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CO-CREATE

Outcome: Humanitarian stakeholders share knowledge and nurture further learning, based on the reflective analysis of their own practice.

CONCEPTUALIZE

Outcome: Humanitarian stakeholders use an enhanced conceptual framework informed by cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and multi-sectorial perspectives.

CONTEXTUALIZE

Outcome: Humanitarian stakeholders contextualize the conceptual analysis in different organizational, cultural and humanitarian environments, translating it in different realities and feeding back into the Humanitarian Encyclopedia.

DISSEMINATE

Outcome: A broad and diverse set of humanitarian stakeholders participate in the integration and dissemination of new knowledge and tools.

CERAH

CERAH, a leading role

The Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH), Geneva’s academic platform for humanitarian action, has a leading role in the Encyclopedia project. CERAH is a partner of choice for a collaborative project aiming to deliver an interdisciplinary, intercultural, multi-sectoral and multi-thematic approach to analysing complexity in – and of – humanitarian action and the humanitarian ecosystem.

Governance

Two main governing bodies

The Humanitarian Encyclopedia has two main governance bodies: the Advisory Board and the Scientific Committee.
Both bodies play a key role in orienting, discussing, nourishing, challenging and disseminating the research results.

Partners

Hand in hand: get involved

A key feature of the Humanitarian Encyclopedia is its living character: we recognize all stakeholders, at the individual and organizational levels, as valid sources of knowledge.

Knocking at the door of Europe

July 31, 2017August 8, 2017 by humnay

Mid-July in Brussels: Prof Doris Schopper met the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides to discuss the Humanitarian Encyclopedia project. The Cypriot Stylianides has held this position since 2014 with one of his responsibilities being to…

An idea brought to life by CERAH

July 5, 2017July 5, 2017 by humnay

Doris Schopper, Director of the Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action (CERAH) explains how the idea to create a common and living repository of knowledge on humanitarian action came about. “The academic centre CERAH would be a very good…

Local NGO’s want their voices to be heard

June 27, 2017June 27, 2017 by walterdesiree

Listen to Manu GUPTA, Chair of the Humanitarian Encyclopedia Advisory Board on how this project has the capacity to bring together some of the wisdom that is used in the work on frontlines to be recognized in the international vocabulary….

In recent years, CERAH has become an internationally recognized educational platform. The Humanitarian Encyclopedia Project marks a new milestone, as an ambitious research project elaborated under the auspices of CERAH. We thank the Swiss Development and Cooperation agency (SDC) as well as the Advisory Board and members of the Scientific Committee for their support to this project, and wish you every success. In this context, we at the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies intend not only to maintain our support to CERAH. We also plan to enhance that support through greater involvement of our professors in CERAH’s teaching and research activities.

Y. Fluckiger, University of Geneva & Prof P. Burrin, IHEID

ALNAP research has consistently found a high degree of terminology inconsistency for key humanitarian concepts. This can often result in a lack of clarity at both a theoretical and practical level. An initiative aimed at finding a shared understanding for these concepts has the potential to make collective action more effective and bring about changes and improvements in humanitarian action.

John Mitchell, ALNAP Director

With greater localisation of humanitarian action, ADRRN sees immense value in the Encyclopedia project. We see it as a bridge-building as well as a learning tool for dialogue and joint action with the increasing number and variety of actors.

Humanitarian Encyclopedia

An interactive platform to better understand humanitarian concepts and practices